The Matrix Revolutions
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The Matrix Revolutions
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THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS closed out the Wachowski’s trilogy of films in an unexpected fashion that left many viewers scratching their heads and asking “What was that about?” Despite being the least critically and financially successful of the three films, REVOLUTIONS takes a number of risks that make it different from the first two. The story is split between events in the Matrix and the outside world, the main characters are split up from each other (allowing for more secondary character development) and the ending is at odds with the traditional notion of a “happy ending” for the protagonists. There’s also a sexually subversive tone that comes to the fore in the third film. It’s predecessors had elements of it scattered throughout, but it comes into much sharper focus in the third film. There’s a strong sense that Larry Wachowski was well and truly struggling with his gender identity issues by this time and there’s more than just a hint of the personal matters being dealt with that seeped through into a number of scenes within the film. While it may not have provided the ending fans were hoping for, REVOLUTIONS is a more straight-forward piece of entertainment because it drops a lot of the psychological and philosophical pretense in favour of all-out action.
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The story picks up almost immediately after the events of RELOADED, where Neo has been able to stop the Sentinels in the real world but has lapsed into a coma as a result. Lying next to him is Bane (Ian Bliss), whose body has been taken over by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving); unbeknownst to anyone at this point. Neo’s consciousness is trapped at a virtual train station that exists somewhere between the computer world of the Matrix and the Machine City of the Sentinels. Neo is unable to escape the station, as it’s controlled by the Trainman (Bruce Spence), a program under the control of the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson). Elsewhere in the Matrix, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Seraph (Collin Chou) confront the Merovingian and force him to release Neo. Upon being released from the train station, Neo heads to the Oracle (Mary Alice, who had to replace Gloria Foster who had sadly passed away during the back-to-back production of RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS), who informs him that “everything that has a beginning has an end”. After Neo departs the Oracle, Smith confronts her and assimilates her and those with her into copies of himself. It becomes clear that his powers are growing just as quickly as Neo’s and he wants control of both the Matrix and the outside world.
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At this point, the Wachowskis make the decision to split their protagonists up, much like the original trilogy STAR WARS films did in both THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI. Neo insists that he be given a ship to travel above ground to the heart of the Machine City, while Morpheus returns to Zion to aid in its defence. Trinity decides to stay with the man she loves and joins Neo on his quest to broker a peace with the Machines in an effort to stop Smith. Unbeknownst to Neo or Trinity, Bane stows away aboard their ship and (still controlled by Smith), he takes Trinity hostage. The subsequent flight sees Neo brutally mutilated, as Bane burns his eyes with an electrical cable, but instead of blinding him it turns his vision into a golden light that allows him to view the world differently. Neo overpowers Bane and kills him, leaving Smith without a presence in the real world and the only way now of achieving his goal is to defeat Neo within the Matrix itself. As Morpheus and the rest of Zion prepare to defend Zion against its Machine combatants, Neo and Trinity race toward their destination and an encounter with Deux Ex Machina, the ultimate Machine.
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Trinity comforts the wounded Neo, who has been blinded by Agent Smith (inhabiting the body of Bane) in an attempt to prevent him from reaching the heart of the Machine City.
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Despite THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS being the least successful of the three films, there’s a lot to like about what the Wachowskis tried to achieve in the story and the film’s visual execution. No one is safe, that’s for certain. The first two films were not shy about killing off characters if it made sense in terms of story and the third film takes this to another level. However, it’s not senseless killing for the sake of creating drama. The characters who die in THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS do so for very specific reasons and the majority of these deaths revolve around the idea of sacrifice for a greater good. There are some obvious exceptions and these are more about viewer pay-off as the story moves toward its “inevitable” conclusion. The Wachowskis certainly deserve credit for adopting a “no sacred cow” approach in their efforts to tell a story whose theme is about the bigger picture, the greater good and the realisation that humankind’s preoccupation with self-indulgence needs to be tempered with consideration for others. REVOLUTIONS makes a real effort to crystalise the pop culture approach to philosophy the first two films took and support the film’s ending with those ideas. In that sense, the story is more focussed and the story is better as a result.
Technically, THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS is an extension of the first two films. Between 1999 and 2003, the use of computer-generated visual effects accelerated dramatically, as George Lucas and James Cameron had paved the way throughout the 1990s with their various CGI experiments in different projects, and their use had become commonplace by the turn of the millennium. Despite the complexity of the visual effects in both RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS, neither film found favour during the Awards season, as THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING swept just about every trophy there was as Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic literary work was brought to a close. Having filmed RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS back-to-back, the sequels were able to bring back behind-the-scenes talent from the first film and lock them in for the extended production process. Once again, Bill Pope’s cinematography is a stand-out, as he combines with the Wachowski siblings to bring some of the most wildly-inventive shots ever captured in a Western cinematic “Blockbuster”. Australian Owen Paterson also returned as Production Designer, providing viewers with more locations within the Matrix itself, but also visualising the Machine City that features heavily at the end of the film as well as additional sets for Zion. The film’s overall look is much darker than the first two and this is reflected in its design aesthetic.
The critical and box office response to THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS is a little bit puzzling. It’s not a bad film. Some fans of the first two movies were disappointed by the ending and it was judged rather harshly as a result. The film made $427 million at the global box office, but its longevity was cut short by the release of THE RETURN OF THE KING. This doesn’t account, however, for the film being off the figure set by RELOADED by almost $300 million. Initial word-of-mouth may have impacted its performance and it most certainly would not have enjoyed repeat patronage from fans because of the perception that it didn’t live up to expectations. REVOLUTIONS has continued to be marked down over time, as it rates 6.7 out 10, out of 346,000 users on IMDB. That figure is almost 20% down on the number of users who have rated RELOADED and only about a third as many who have rated THE MATRIX. The combined trilogy of MATRIX films makes for compelling viewing and REVOLUTIONS has been reviewed harshly by comparison to the first and second films. Perhaps it time for science fiction fans to re-enter THE MATRIX and see whether swallowing the red pill makes a difference this time around...
